Horses of St. Mark

The real horses of St. Mark (the ones on the facade are replicas), displayed in a museum in an upper gallery of the basilica since the 1990s. These triumphal Greco-Roman figures - made from bronze covered in gold - graced the Hippodrome in Constantinople (Istanbul) until they were looted by the Venetians during the Fourth Crusade. They had to be decapitated in order to fit them on the boats - the collars were added by the Venetians to cover the seam where they were reattached. Basilica di San Marco, Venice, Italy.